1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus configured to form an image on a recording medium by using a spot color toner, and an image processing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image processing apparatus generally captures drawing data supplied from a host computer, and executes image processing based on the captured drawing data. A method of the image processing includes an electrophotographic method.
In the image processing apparatus that uses the electrophotographic method, an electric charger charges a photosensitive drum. Furthermore, the photosensitive drum is irradiated with light according to image data to form an electrostatic latent image on the photosensitive drum. In addition, a development device applies toner to develop the electrostatic latent image into a visible image. Subsequently, the developed toner image is transferred from the photosensitive drum to a recording sheet. Furthermore, heat and pressure are applied to the transferred image to fix the image on the sheet.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2006-251722 discusses an electrophotographic type image processing apparatus, which uses a spot color printing material for a part of or the entire image to be printed as well as using cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), and black (K) toners, which are process colors (i.e., colors of basic printing materials). The spot color printing material includes a transparent toner.
The light reflection performance on a surface having the image printed thereon in a part thereof by using the transparent toner may vary. Accordingly, a decorative effect can be expressed. In addition, by appropriately combining a type of paper (paper type) to be used in image processing and drawing data to be printed by the transparent toner, a decorative effect, such as glossiness and a matte effect, can be provided to the portion of a surface of the sheet used in the image processing in which the image is printed by using the transparent toner.
However, the decorative effect desired by the user may not be implemented unless an appropriate type of paper is used in the image processing. In order to prevent this, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2010-091813 discusses a method of changing the paper type and drawing data to be printed by using the transparent toner according to the decorative effect designated by the user and a user-prioritized setting, such as an image quality and a printing speed.
A print appearance setting, such as a two-sided printing setting, can be further set to a sheet designated to express a decorative effect to print or output an image by using the transparent toner. If a print appearance is set, a page to be printed by using the transparent toner may be designated to be printed on a back surface of a specific sheet.
If the user designates a glossiness effect to an object to be printed on a surface of a first sheet, a glossiness attribute is required as an attribute of the first sheet. On the other hand, if the user designates a matte effect to an object to be printed on a surface of a second sheet, a matte attribute is required as an attribute of the second sheet.
In printing the document data described above, the document data is printed by using a glossy paper for the first sheet and a matte paper for the second sheet. However, if two-sided printing is selected for printing the document data like this, a drawing content for the second sheet may be output on the back surface of the first sheet. Accordingly, in this case, it becomes necessary to newly set and use a sheet whose front surface has a glossy attribute and whose back surface has a matte attribute as the first sheet.